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Quit Smoking – Start Writing

October 24, 2017

Whether you refer to them as cigs, ciggies, tabs, smokes, snouts, bines, rollies or roll ups – we’re seeing them used less and less each year. Tobacco smoking is undeniably on the decline in the UK. With national initiatives such as Stoptober, a month-long campaign encouraging folks to stop smoking, a greater amount of the general public is concerned about the long-term impact smoking may have on their health.

More people are also conscious of their ability to ditch the habit and beat the nicotine addiction. Only 16.9% of UK adults currently smoke, with half a million giving up in 2015.

Within that 16.9%, for whatever reason, there’s a portion of us who have tried to quit, to no avail. Despite knowing the obvious dangers, the temptation to smoke has a hold on many people. People start smoking for different reasons – but why do people continue to smoke even when they know the dangers?

They’re Just a Poor Mans’ Pipe

Smoking is an addiction that is more dominant when we are dealing with negative emotions, feelings or moods. This can include loneliness, sadness, irritation, nervousness, paranoia, sleeplessness, restlessness, hunger or when gaining excess weight. Feel like none of this applies to you? Smoking also becomes linked to patterns in our day to day life.

So even the happiest of people can remain addicted. Activities in which you would usually have a cigarette, perhaps on a lunch break, during an alcoholic beverage or stepping outside of work, reinforces the thought in your head that you need a cigarette when this activity occurs. This is untrue, you don’t need a cigarette, your brain just thinks you do because smoking has been engrained and becomes part of these activities to you.

Learning to enjoy the aforementioned activities without a cigarette is key to giving up smoking and in the grand scheme of things, looking after your health. Nicotine may keep you addicted to smoking cigarettes but it is the other components which will create difficulties to your health. The harmful ingredients within tobacco include but are not limited to:

Tar

Carbon monoxide

Benzene

Oxidant gases

A further 60 of these chemicals are poisonous and can lead to cancer. In fact, 90% of deaths from lung cancer are caused by smoking. Smoking can also be the origin of heart disease, strokes, chronic obtrusive pulmonary disease and a whole host of other detrimental health complications.

50p a Cigarette? Holy Smokes!

Furthermore, smoking costs you a bomb! The NHS states smoking costs the average UK citizen £548 based on five cigarettes per day. That’s a holiday you could be missing out on. A lot of people enjoy the ritual of smoking a cigarette to pass the time, people seem to just enjoy using their hands for whatever reasons. It’s why we fidget or find ourselves randomly playing with our hair or strangely rubbing the arm of a chair. Many people channel this urge to twiddle their thumbs by engaging in activities such as knitting, gaming, texting, drawing, painting, playing an instrument or our personal favourite – writing.

Start Writing – Stop Smoking!

Writing is a fantastic alternative because not only is it free, it is a tool which supports and helps develop our capacity to think, create and express ourselves. Plus, it’s a great way to pass the time. These days, the opportunity to make money from writing has become accessible to anyone in the UK who is able to read and has something to write about. Writing has retained its virtues as a form of expression and an art form, but now more people than ever before have the ability to share their work with the world

Bloggers and article contributors are just some of the people currently making money writing from the comfort of their own home. Doesn’t sound too bad does it?

It may seem farfetched but for those who use smoking as a way of countering stress, taking some time for yourself and writing whatever crosses your thoughts can help clear your mind. This helps to reduce stress and makes you feel calmer and more comfortable. Any entrepreneurial ideas or life events which you would like to be recorded in detail can be done so and revised later. This brings your creations and past events to life!

Channel Your Addiction

If you’re doubting any of the above, seeing an article you’ve wrote in an online or print publication is a rewarding experience, for anyone. Made especially satisfying if published in a magazine or website you value and/or admire. Any monetary gain is a huge plus. Imagine being the owner of a travel blog which has gained the attention from the likes of travel companies, extravagant hotels and restaurants which serve up the finest cuisine. Free flights, rooms and food suddenly become a possible reality. Avoid the cheap tobacco though!

We’ve also recently touched upon the benefits of engaging in specifically cursive handwriting in another post on our blog. Defending the furtherance of writing by hand, the post explains how the physical act of handwriting helps us understand words better and details how handwriting came to be.

The New Age Modern Writer

In the 20th century, nothing embodied the visualisation of a writer more than a frantic, spectacle wearing man or woman, hunched over a desk scribing or typing away with a cigarette clenched between the finger tips or waiting impatiently in an ash tray; accompanied by a half empty glass of wine or a treasured coffee mug.

However, that stereotype is vanishing. Through the rise of less harmful vaporisers and e-cigs – nicotine patches and gum – people are nipping it in the bud. The introduction of more hard-hitting deterring images and warning books (such as Alan Carr’s – Easy Way to Stop Smoking) also act as handy assistants in the battle against nicotine. We know and you know yourself that you can quit, you just need a little extra motivation to do so. Whenever you feel like smoking, why not counter the craving and pick up a pen (or open a word document) and jot down your thoughts instead, today!